86 fiero clutch issue...

[hathaway16]

ok so here is my situation, i bought a 1986 fiero for 600 dollars, the person replaced the clutch, flywheel, TOB and pressure plate, when he put it all back together he couldn't get it to go into gear, he then removed the clutch again and speced everything out to see if there was a problem and everything seemed to spec properly. when we bought the car he said the slave cylinder was shot and might be a problem. i drove the car home and rev matched the whole way and everything seems to be good when driving. i then replaced the slave cylinder with no luck, when i looked under the dash i noticed the pedal was bent due to the half aluminum design. i bent the pedal back but noticed the master cylinder push rod was bent so we replaced that as well, after bleeding it following every type of bleeding procedure we could find we somehow kept getting air back into the system and ended up replacing the whole line as well. now we have done the bleeding again with no such luck, ive read forums about different ways to test for bent pedal or something in hydraulics. when the pedal is pressed we watched the master cylinder and it doesn't seem to be pushing out of the seals back into the reservoir but the slave rod only pushes out about 1/2 inch rather than 15/16ths of an inch, i measured the master cylinder push rod and it seems to push in 1 inch when pedal is pressed but when master cylinder is out of the vehicle it bottoms out after 1 1/2 inch, the pedal seems to be bottoming out under the dashboard so it cant go any further and we decided to take apart the master and slave and the slave cylinder internals look identical but the master cylinder internals look different... i will post some pictured as well for you guys to try and help me out.

 

[hathaway16]

this is the reason we replaced the master cylinder

we are not sure if this has anything to do with it but they didn't match so we took pictures...

Top on is the new master plunger and bottom is old, they are the same bore but looks like the shaft is different but im not sure if it matters

look identical to me but just in case anyone wants to see them... slave cylinder plungers

master cylinder flare... we used 6mm line but im assuming the line size doesn't mean anything

slave cylinder flare...

this is where the clutch pedal bottoms out under the dash

 

[hathaway16]

ok so i think the problem lies in the shaft for the master cylinder, although the old one is bent i have a feeling the new one is too short, in order to hook the shaft up to the clutch pedal it needs to be pushed in like an inch or so... thus giving me less clutch pedal, i measured the shaft and it is 6 3/4 of an inch long, does anyone know how long there supposed to be?

 

[tucsonsean]

Had similar problem. Bought one of Rodney's adjustable banjos for my master cylinder and one of his aluminum slave cylinders. Seems to have solved the problem--so far.

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[hathaway16]

Had similar problem. Bought one of Rodney's adjustable banjos for my master cylinder and one of his aluminum slave cylinders. Seems to have solved the problem--so far.

well we just ordered the all steel pedal and a new master and slave from the fiero store, will be returning the ones we bought the other day to get some cash back, i hope this is the problem

 

[hathaway16]

anyone got any other ideas?

 

[tucsonsean]

You might be right about the shaft (banjo) in your clutch master. When I pulled mine, the hole for the pivot was worn into an oval--about 3/8" right there. Also, don't rule out your slave being shot. (When I got my Fiero, someone had mounted the slave INSIDE the bracket and brazed a glob of metal onto the end of the rod to try to compensate for the slave's shortcomings.)

By the way, my original master banjo was 6.5" long.

 

[hathaway16]

ok so apparently there was a wrong slave on the car... we ordered a slave from the fiero store and it was a different style, we thought it wouldn't fit but we tried it and now the clutch works but it just doesn't throw as far as it should, the slave rod moves 13/16th of an inch... we think there's either a little more air in the system or the clutch pedal is bent a bit after we tried re-bending it back

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[tucsonsean]

Hey Hath,

Probably is just air in the system, but check out the pics of my banjo end and pedal pivot ("It's not always just clutch hydraulics"). Didn't know how bad mine was til I got it apart.

 

[hathaway16]

ya this one looks nothing like yours, no wear at all in the old master or in the pedal, ive read threads and already double checked it, we might replace the pedal if more bleeding doesn't make it better

 

[SGPHIREWIRE]

I'm replacing that in mine right now, I have no clutch at all though. Did you bleed the system good? Is the Clutch catching properly.